by Cai Trefor | Photos by Dominic Marten
23 photos of King Gizzard playing Hackney at 2pm
Moth Club held their matinee show on a sunny Bank Holiday Monday
King Gizzard and The Wizard Lizard are one of the best live bands on the planet. Fortunately for the few hundred who managed to cram into their sweaty matinee show at Moth Club this Bank Holiday Monday, they are living up to the hype.
"This is alright hanging out in the pub getting some day beers," enthuses frontman Stu MacKenzie who plays flute and guitar. He doesn't say much after that but just goes out all guns blazing playing through songs that nod to Black Sabbath and Jethro Tull, among others.
Impressively they have dual drums: two drummers doing basically exactly the same thing in tandem. It adds an impressive power as the guitarist, keys, harmonica, flute and bass ride the wave of energy they put out. They don't pause in-between songs and are so well rehearsed that no one's attention wades. The audience are relentlessly enthusiastic and start a mosh pit early on that doesn't wade.
The long-haired Aussies band draw quite heavily from their new album Nonagon Infinity, which is a fair bit heavier than their earlier material. But this isn't a band content to simply relay the material as they recorded. Instead, they use part of the opening track from the album 'Robot Stop' and it keeps reappearing in and amongst extended wig-outs throughout the set which is impressive and gleefully disorientating. It might be Notting Hill Carnival out there but not one part of me cares and neither does anyone else in this building. We're utterly content.